The soon to be lost languages of our Indigenous cultures

With the disappearance of many Indigenous languages in South Australia a current threat, a group of Univeristy of Adelaide researchers have spent the past five years investigating how the languages could be preserved.

For the past five years researchers from the University of Adelaide have travelled the width and breadth of South Australia to track the survival rates of the many Indigenous dialects in the area.

Their research has revealed that the survival of up to 20 community languages may lie in the hands of its most pressured generation, today's youth.

By interviewing 145 Indigenous voluntary candidates throughout South Australia, Peter Mühlhäusler, Paul Monaghan and Petter Naessan were able to ascertain generational trends that would soon decide the survival of several of the Indigenous dialects.

By interviewing candidates from the ages of 16 to 70, primarily in Adelaide, Ceduna, Murray Bridge and Port Pirie, the researchers found most primarily spoke English, and through the likes of generational attitudes and relocation, several Indigenous languages were not being passed on.

"Some people spoke two, or new about two, and some said that they mainly speak English," Petter Naessan said.

"The diversity is quite extensive."

Petter found that, as with other cultures, many of the surveyed residents in particularly Adelaide and Port Pirie had moved to these locations from other areas, and had lost touch with the dialects from their original mobs.

"For instance in Port Pirie, the majority of the people we interviewed were Arrernte speakers from Hermannsburg and Alice Springs.

"That was surprising but still quite interesting," Petter said.

With the two dominant Indigenous languages spoken in South Australia being Pitjantjatjarra and Yankunytjatjara, Petter said the other languages were in various states of 'severe endangerment'.

"Most are actually no longer spoken, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the state."

Petter found that there was a significant difference in preservation interests of the languages from those surveyed who were born after 1967 due to a change in assimilation policy from the governments of the times.

"The younger people are, the more they tend to be willing to support Aboriginal-English and to teach that to their children."

With the future of the minor Indigenous languages lying in the hands of the current generations, Petter found a strong gender difference in the peer networks of young Indigenous cultures, with young females tending to have less ethno-linguistic members of their own groups in their peers.

"I think that there are a lot of younger Indigenous people that are very proud of their ancestry and heritage, and that is definitely a strength."

Petter also said another strength in the research that was discovered was the sense of ownership of the languages, and a wish to continue dialect preservations through non-governmental agencies.

Through the results of the research, the team has compiled a booklet with recommendations on how people can recognise, capture and reuse whatever parts of a dialogue they currently know to ensure languages survive.

And for those worried that teaching children more than one language may confuse and even hinder their educational process, Petter says the introduction of a second, or even third language to a child is actually quite healthy.

"A child can learn two or three languages in the time it takes to learn one.

"To know more than one language is neuro-linguistically good for your brain."